Day 4 and 5 - Paluma and fishing

On Saturday June 23rd Jen, Chris and I headed to Paluma, the rainforest in the clouds. En route we stopped off for morning tea at Chris' uncles place, where I met a bunch of lovely people I had no hope of remembering the names of.

An hour or so later we were back on the road, driving past sugar cane fields and pineapples towards mountains fast disappearing into cloud. The drive up the mountain itself started much like any other small windy road through the bush, but the scenery soon changed to dense rainforest. The cloud trailing through the forest made for interesting atmospheric effects. At certain points one could easily imagine the headless horseman riding out of the mist, sweeping past the vines which dangled from branches arching over the road.

We drove all the way to the huge man made reservoir on top of the mountain, where we got out to stretch our legs. Again the mist made interesting effects. The water appeared white, and we could feel and see tiny water droplets which were so fine that they did not cause any ripples in the lake. On the drive back we stopped in the village for something to eat before returning home.

Later that night we were all relaxing at Jens, and after she went to bed Chris and I decided we felt like doing something, so we ended up going for a late night stroll along The Strand, Townsville's main beach. We ended up walking a fair distance, and stopped for a coffee before returning. It was a beautiful walk, and a lovely mild night for it. Afterwards we went to the casino for a little while before calling it quits for the night.

The next day Chris and I met up with Jen for lunch along the strand before heading off to go fishing with Ron and his dad, Ron snr. We went out on one of the creeks in their new boat and found a spot where the fish were biting constantly. This was my first fishing trip. I caught a few little guys that had to be thrown back. Chris was the only one who caught anything big enough to keep; he caught a flounder, a brim and a big mangrove jack, which is an expensive reef fish. We gave the brim to the Ron's, had the flounder as part of our dinner and saved the big fish for later in the week.